Ever since the last time I spoke with Blair Levin on Episode 37, I have wanted to have him back for a friendly discussion about public or private ownership of next generation networks. Though Blair and I entirely agree that local governments should be free to decide locally whether a community broadband network investment is a … Read More
Recently, we ran a story on the Columbus suburb of Dublin, which has a growing fiber optic network that has paid huge dividends in public savings, economic development, and facilitating technology research with the Ohio State University. Apparently others are taking notice of Dublin as well: Athens, a city 90 miles to the Southeast, has its … Read More
Our friends at the Blandin Foundation recently sponsored another Minnesota Border to Border Broadband conference. Video and materials are now available. In addition to the archived video of the November 19th event in Brainerd, Minnesota, Blandin on Broadband‘s Ann Treacy provides links to summaries of each session, some of which also have PowerPoint presentations or video … Read More
If your community is hungry for better connectivity, you may be interested in starting a community network initiative. Getting started can be a daunting task so we developed the Community Connectivity Toolkit. The Toolkit includes broad suggestions for steps you should take as you investigate solutions for your community. We also include resources to help you … Read More
On November 5th, we opened up the lines of communication for our first “Ask Us Anything: An Open Talk on Muni Networks” event. That event is now available on our YouTube Channel. We find many communities and their citizens are interested in exploring municipal networks as a possible method to improve connectivity but don’t know how … Read More
Chris was recently invited to present in Brussels on the experience of U.S. cities and fiber optic investment. The event was organized by the Swedish Association of Local Authorities (SALAR) and Stokab (The City of Stockholm IT infrastructure company). Mitchell gave an overview of the situation in the US and described the difficulties of getting high-capacity broadband, even … Read More
“The FCC should be extremely wary of any arguments that claim paid prioritization or other discriminatory practices are necessary to increase investment in next-generation networks.” — ILSR, July 18, 2014 For months the FCC has considered comments from the public as it examines network neutrality. There have been more than 3 million submissions; a vast majority … Read More
The Boston Globe, November 2, 2014 BOSTON – Boston is teaming up with more than two dozen other cities across the country to tackle one of the most complex infrastructure questions of the century: how to ensure the next-generation Internet connectivity that will be crucial for civic success. “Where we stand today does not represent a network that … Read More
Two more Colorado communities will be deciding whether or not to reclaim local telecommunications authority this fall. Colorado State Bill 152 took away local authority in 2005 but voters in several areas of the state are taking it back. Readers will recall Centennial voters passed the measure 3:1 last fall and Montrose voters approved a similar … Read More
